Woodie White and Oyster Tennis Club bring park culture to tennis

Because On is relatively new to the tennis space, the Swiss brand can approach the sport in a new way. To make this possible, they brought Woodie White, founder of the Oyster Tennis Club, on board.

White, now the brand’s cultural attaché for tennis, works with On to connect the brand with the community outside of country clubs, which White describes as park players. The new On The Roger Clubhouse Pro sneaker helps underscore that connection.

“The great thing about this shoe is its performance, which you can incorporate into your lifestyle,” White tells me. “This is a new take on a shoe that’s made for the court and that you can wear every day, everywhere. That’s what attracted me even before I had the opportunity to work with On. I just fell in love with the silhouette.”

Together with Roger Federer, On began to shift from running into tennis, developing tennis-inspired lifestyle models. The first performance silhouette for the sport, The Roger Pro, launched in limited quantities at retail in 2021. This spring, the brand launched The Roger Clubhouse Pro, a design designed for the court that is intended to appeal more to recreational players. It was also designed to be worn off the court, which fits with the cultural connection White wants to create between the sport and the brand.

The Oyster Tennis Club began bringing a basketball-style park culture to tennis in Los Angeles in 2019, giving people the opportunity to meet at public courts at set times. Club coaches are also there to introduce new players to the game. “There’s been a big shift in the new generation of tennis players and people playing in the parks,” White says. “We’re making tennis look and feel more like basketball.”

MORE: On officially introduces the Roger Pro 2 tennis shoe

Now with several clubs in LA and Chicago and spontaneous events around major tennis events, White’s influence in the tennis park culture is growing. The club has recently held spontaneous events in Indian Wells – in partnership with On around the release of Clubhouse Pro – and in Miami, both timed to coincide with major professional tournaments there. He plans an event with On in New York City ahead of the US Open and in Berlin around the Laver Cup. Eventually he hopes to have events in Paris around Roland Garros and in Newport, Rhode Island, coupled with the International Tennis Hall of Fame tournament. Each event is designed to invite people to exercise in a public space, provide instruction and give tennis players a chance to meet each other. This model fits with what On has been doing for years around major running events.

White, who came into contact with On through an Oyster hiking club he runs, says the connection came about naturally in tennis. On a trip to the company’s Zurich headquarters in 2022, he saw the future Clubhouse Pro mixed with running models as part of a presentation of future product releases and was immediately drawn to its versatility – a sneaker that would appeal to park players. Soon, White was speaking with an On co-founder and that “very organic” conversation evolved from a five-minute chat to a 45-minute discussion and led to his new position in On’s tennis and had him helping the brand develop inline colorways of the Clubhouse Pro and a special edition Oyster colorway in white and green, set to release in late summer.

Everything about On’s positioning with the new shoe is tied to what White calls the park player, from product to marketing. “If you look around today, most of the tennis advertising that represents the sport looks extravagant. Everything is always all white and there’s a luxurious look,” he says. “The growth of the sport and the reality of the people who play day in and day out is in the parks.”

On’s marketing material for the Clubhouse Pro highlights this by using members of the Oyster Tennis Club and photographing them at a high school. White says this can help change perceptions of a sport based entirely on privilege. “I wore this shoe to play when I was in Miami, then I wore it to the (Miami Open) and always wore it,” White says. “It was so good; it went with so many things. It was perfect.”

By getting new people into the sport, you invite them into a new world of product. “When you get into sport, the product comes into play very naturally for people,” he says. “Now they need something that’s built for that specific thing. I love the connection when you pick up something new that might interest you and the product and equipment you have to buy to go with it. I think that’s what makes tennis so special, it has such a strong fashion aspect anyway.”

And in a world where the on-court performance models haven’t become lifestyle shoes in decades, White says the combination of performance and lifestyle in a product like the Clubhouse Pro suits the park player. “I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from non-tennis players when they see the inline models that they’ve never seen an On shoe that looks like this,” he says. “They love it. It feels like a sneaker even though it’s a performance model, which you don’t see that much anymore.”

White points out that the Roger Pros offer peak performance for players like Ben Shelton and Iga Swiatek, but aren’t designed for everyday wear. Creating a pair of shoes that is relatable to a lot of people, so customers can wear the same shoes on the tennis court that they wear on the court, is something that people understand. “This is my favorite shoe, but not just for tennis, but as a real sneaker,” he says. “I pack it and now I have one less shoe to pack when I travel. I have my shoe that I can walk around in with a hood on and not be on the tennis court but ready to play. It’s the same shoe.”

For the special edition Oyster colorway, White says he created a unique color-block design that uses traditional colors on a modern silhouette. The shoe is finished in a mix of white, off-white and forest green. Oyster tennis branding on the forefoot and the club logo on the back complete the design. “We just flooded the shoe with even more green,” he says of the design process. “When they saw that and when we saw that, they thought, ‘Oh, that’s it.'”

White hopes his position will allow him to continue working in tennis while also connecting with the community. “My desire is to continue working on more products and continue to build these experiences with On to promote free urban tennis,” he says. “I really want to get out there and get more people interested in the sport.”